topological media lab a transversal machine Sha Xin Wei Canada - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

topological media lab a transversal machine Sha Xin Wei Canada Research Chair, Critical Studies of Media Arts & Sciences Director, Topological Media Lab Associate Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts Concordia University. Montréal 1

menu 1 What’s at stake? 2 Thick experiments in the wild 3 TML as laboratory + atelier 4 Context: recherche-création policy 5 TML as a transversal machine 2

what’s at stake? experimental philosophy 3

what’s at stake: ? what is the human ? 4

what’s at stake: ? what is the human ? how to human? ethico-aesthetic play event gesture tissue (molecular) politics 5

art all the way down put concepts in play: “human” “machine” “interaction” “program” “rule” “information” “memory” “linguistics” “game” “market” “design” “industry” “body” “ego” “citizen” ... 6

putting in play: morphogenesis Stengers Petitot Thom Deleuze Guattari Simondon Foucault Whitehead Spinoza Leibniz Heraclitus ... 7

thick experiments in the wild whole, dense, palpable, shared experience built environment as space of experiment events in public art research 8

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topological media lab = laboratory + atelier 10

core: continuous approaches to materiality agency gesture process 11

engineering vs. media choreography diagram of system vs. ... Herb Schneider for Steve Paxton 12

diagram of event phase change induced by speech and movement energy Harry Smoak, Matthew Warne, Kevin Stamper TML 2004

experiments in lab 14

Ouija: Calligraphy 15 composite gesture: body movement, live painting, realtime video, June-July 2007 Hexagram Blackbox

vivesection architecture Workshop on pneumatic structures & hacked toys October 2006 Patrick Harrop Prof. Architecture, U Manitoba Ted Krueger Assoc. Dean, Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 16

contrapuntal buildings Maroussia Levesque, Sebastien Speier, Harry Smoak, Erik Conrad et al. Blink! Engineering Visual Arts, Concordia, May 2006 17

applications: movement arts and architecture 18

movement arts & responsive environments 19

magic and alchemy with Mark Sussman performance studies pageant, table top theatre, animated objects, Great Small Works 2006 - present 20

Frankenstein’s Ghosts 21

Frankenstein’s Ghosts Resynthesized movement & sound. Blackbox Dec 2008. Montanaro, Blue Riders*, TML * Paul Bendzsa, Milan Gervais, * Pam Reimer, * Liselyn Adam; + dancer Leal Stellick 22

architecture & responsive environments 23

Shanghai eArts: E-Sea Pneuma + TML, P. Hasdell, P. Harrop, J. Bolchover, Sha X.W. October 12-23, Shanghai Century Plaza 24

photocells tracking sun Shanghai eArts: E-Sea Pneuma + TML, P. Hasdell, P. Harrop, J. Bolchover, Sha X.W. October 12-23, Shanghai Century Plaza 25

2000 sheets CNC card Shanghai eArts: E-Sea Pneuma + TML, P. Hasdell, P. Harrop, J. Bolchover, Sha X.W. October 12-23, Shanghai Century Plaza 26

Shanghai eArts: E-Sea LED network Pneuma + TML, P. Hasdell, P. Harrop, J. Bolchover, Sha X.W. October 12-23, Shanghai Century Plaza 27

canadian centre for architecture dmx animated led light panels nuit blanche 20th anniversary 2009 tml: sutherland, sutton, navab 28

cca shaughnessy house external lighting from dmx animated leds, gelled windows nuit blanche 20th anniversary 2009 tml: sutherland, sutton, navab 29

macro context: recherche-création Québec 2000 Canada 2003 Hexagram Concordia 2003-8 30

Québec Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) to fund research by university-based artists: "les activités ou démarches de recherche favorisant la création ou l'interprétation d'oeuvres littéraires ou artistiques.... Dans le cadre de ce programme, l'interprétation est analogue à la création et ne peut être comprise comme une démarche intellectuelle d'analyse d'une oeuvre ou des réalisations d'un créateur." 31

Québec recherche-création Une démarche de recherche-création en arts et lettres repose sur sustained creative practice l’exercice d’une pratique créatrice soutenue; sur une réflexion intrinsèque à l’élaboration d’oeuvres ou de productions inédites; sur la diffusion de ces oeuvres sous diverses formes. Une démarche new production de recherche-création doit contribuer à un développement disciplinaire par un renouvellement des connaissances ou des step: a disciplinary development savoir-faire, des innovations d’ordre esthétique, pédagogique, technique, instrumental ou autre. Ces activités doivent contribuer, du point de vue des pairs : fresh knowledge / technique au développement de chacune des formes d'expression, à la new forms of expression -> new condition que les oeuvres, la démarche suivie, le style, les formes d'expression, la technologie ou le matériau utilisé, les modes de style, materials, techniques, présentation, le répertoire ou le style d'interprétation offrent un technologies used caractère d'évolution, d'originalité, d'innovation ou de renouvellement par rapport à l'état présent du domaine spécifique; education of students à la formation des étudiants, particulièrement ceux des cycles supérieurs; increased recognition of à une reconnaissance accrue des intervenants dans le domaine des interlocutors in arts & letters arts et des lettres; add to cultural heritage à l'enrichissement du patrimoine culturel québécois, canadien ou international. [e Comité d’étude sur le financement du secteur des arts et lettres 32 o the FQRSC Spring 2000 ]

Québec recherche-création • La recherche-création (RC) est toute activité ou démarche de recherche favorisant la création ou l’interprétation d’oeuvres littéraires ou artistiques, de quelque type que eventual possible public presentation ce soit, répondant à toutes les exigences de l’excellence et permettant une présentation publique éventuelle . (not art production) • Les chercheurs-créateurs sont les membres réguliers du corps professoral d’une université québécoise dont la tâche implique des activités de création ou d’interprétation tels les écrivains, les cinéastes, les vidéastes, les scénaristes les acteurs, les compositeurs, les interprètes, les metteurs en scène, les dramaturges, etc. • La recherche-création (RC) est toute activité ou démarche de recherche favorisant la création ou l’interprétation d’oeuvres littéraires ou artistiques, de quelque type que ce soit, répondant à toutes les exigences de l’excellence et permettant une présentation publique éventuelle. 33

Canada federal research/creation "The term research/creation is gaining currency both in Canada and internationally. Until recently, university- and college-based artists had been treated as research “outsiders”— an exotic, and perhaps even a suspicious [sic], breed. Until the FQRSC in Quebec began funding research/creation in 2000, we were the only university sector excluded from the spectrum of funding programs intended for university research and researchers. A few hardy artist-researchers managed to piggyback elements of their research programs on Strategic grants in other disciplines—usually by suppressing important aspects of their activity and describing their practice in language (or with emphases) developed in very different disciplines. While artist-researchers were able to apply to the Canada Council , this was often also awkward, either because the assumptions and setting at the university are different than those for independent artists (student mentoring, for instance) or because university artists were seen as intruding on the very slim percentage of the Council funds available for independent artists’ projects. At the same time, university artist-researchers are increasingly involved in interdisciplinary initiatives that cross university disciplines and may also include the participation of artists and organizations beyond the university. For these and other reasons, there is a growing recognition that artist-researchers have something very vital to contribute to the contemporary university research community" p 15, Formative Evaluation of SSHRC’s Research/Creation in Fine Arts Program 34 Final Report, October 8, 2007

Canada federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Alternatives: An environmental scan was conducted to identify similar programs in Canada and abroad. Aside from initiatives by the [FQRSC[, there is no comparable program in terms of total investments in research/creation projects ($13.4 million), size (an award value of up to $250,000 per project), scope (nearly 100 individuals from a wide range of artistic disciplines funded during the five-year pilot phase), and tenure of funding (three years). Survey responses echoed the lack of comparables, but cited provincial government, university, and federal government sources as potential (though not equivalent) resources. p 6, Formative Evaluation of SSHRC’s Research/Creation in Fine Arts Program Final Report, October 8, 2007 35